Magnificent Materials

In Year 3 this week, we participated in a science workshop centered around the exploration of various materials. Throughout the session, we rotated among four stations, each offering unique experiments and investigations.

At the initial station, our task involved predicting the hardness of different materials by testing them against a wood block.

Next, we conducted a chemical reaction aimed at generating carbon dioxide.

In another station  we explored chromatography.

In the final station we examined the density contrast between oil and water by creating  lava lamps.

How many more minutes?

Last week in Science week, we explored time.

We learnt what we can do in a minute, from how many star jumps to how many times we can write our name.

We looked at the lifecycle of a bee and other cycles of life we see in nature.

We linked all the learning to our Science topic of seasonal changes and learning about the months of the year, which we then shared with our families and the school in our Learning Assembly.

Reception – A very scientific week!

15.03.24

Dear children and parents,
This week we’ve been busy talking about the world around us and understanding the effects of changing seasons on the natural world. We were looking for signs of Spring and painted posters for each season. We talked about the different activities we can do in different times of year and the colours we see.

This week the theme for British science week was time and that opened up lots and lots of discussions about what time means and how we can measure time. We talked about things that go very fast (the fastest animals or ways of travelling) or very slow (growing plants, building a house).

We planted some beans, talking about what the seeds might need, how to look after them and how long it will take for them to grow. The children had to think about what comes first, second. Next week the children will start writing a diary, carefully observing the changes.

1 Find a pot, 2 Put soil in:

3 Put the seeds, 4 Water the seed:

During the week we were making puppets for our end of week sneaky shadow puppet show. We performed in front of each other telling stories and acting out. The children loved using the torches and seeing the effect of light on the screen!

If you need some fresh fruit or veggies, please come to our brand new market. You will find potatoes, cabbage and cucumbers. Also milk, eggs and honey! The children did the labels all by themselves and helped set up the stalls. Well done everyone!

In Little Wandle we read our first super long words like fantastic and shimmer. I’ve added a few of the them to the orange book. Please practice them with your child and if they struggle let them chunk the words.

In Maths we are continuing to think about numbers to 10. The children used conceptual subitising to identify a whole quantity within 10 by subitising the smaller groups that make up that number. This skill will support children to develop mental images for addition and subtraction, which helps children to move away from counting on and counting back.

Have a lovely weekend!
Looking forward seeing you next week!!!
Mrs Solakova

Time is racing by…

… which was the theme of Friday afternoon, to mark Science Week. Year 4 was investigating whether people with the longest legs run the fastest. This involved measuring leg length, timing each other running sprints and then recording the data. We had to wait till the rain and stopped and dried up before we could go outside, so the final recording and analysis will wait till next week.

We’ve also been considering evaporating water as we measured the amounts of water in containers in different locations. We were surprised at how much effect on evaporation heat actually has!

In RHE, we have been learning about how we are all created in God’s image. In particular, we’ve considered how what we see on social media frequently isn’t real and doesn’t represent reality. However, reality is what matters and we should all respect and love each other in our “real forms”, like God does.

Here three children are reading the story which formed the basis of the RHE lesson. The children really enjoy reading the scenarios and role-plays for the sessions. They are great public speakers and actors!

The home learning has posted at the right time this week, so the children can share the learning they’ve been doing about perimeter and length, which included shape which they have enjoyed. It’s nice to have a change from straight number work. Let’s hope there is some sun this weekend and I hope that you all have a relaxing time together.

Science Week!

This week, we’ve been fully immersed in science experiments aligned with our current learning focus: light and dark. Our journey began with exploring various materials and examining their reflective properties under different conditions. We also learned about how shadows are formed. Then, we created animal shadows with our hands. We concluded the week by planting sunflower seeds in preparation for our next science unit.

Nursery – 15.03.24

As part of RE this week we thought about Spring, a time for new things to grow. We wanted to watch something new grow quickly in the classroom so on Monday we helped put some cress seeds into large dishes and then watched them grow…

We also thought how we grow in love during the season of Lent and we went to look at the Lenten tree. The children were very good at remembering the promise that they had made and told me that they were keeping them.

In Maths this week we consolidated our learning by playing subitising, counting and matching games.

Other pictures this week

Friday 22nd March – EYFS cake sale after school. Donations of cakes can come in on the day via the office/classroom.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Tylor

Year Two poets enjoy the springtime!

Just take a look at our beautiful daffodil cards

Ellis came into school and recited a beautiful poem that he had written himself. Here it is:

Springtime by Ellis

Springtime is nearly here and the sky has become clear.

The sunshine comes out and everyone can play about.

Baby animals are being born at the farm. We go to see them, a super charm!!

The flowers start to grow, some start from seed that we have to sow.

The sunshine helps them and the water does too.

We are happy when the skies are blue

Ellis’s amazing skills as a poet inspired us to write our own poem as a class. We discovered how writing a poem takes time as we brainstormed our imaginative ideas and had to agree on what phrases and ideas would go where in our poem.

Daffodils by Year Two

Daffodils are yellow, sometimes white and they use the sunshine to make them bright.

Beautiful daffodils are wonderful to see.

Sitting beside them makes you happy.

Standing straight like soldiers, all in a row.

Be careful not to step on them, or they will not grow!

Year 4 Books Wishlist

As Mrs Porter mentioned in the bulletin, the birthday traditions at St Adrians include buying a book for the school library, from the year group’s wishlist on Amazon. Here is year 4’s: https://amzn.eu/cP4l70U

Buying a book for the school library is a wonderful way to contribute to the joy of learning and pleasure of reading for current and future pupils. When a child goes to the library, s/he may see his/her book on the shelves and s/he can recommend it to friends. It will have a bookplate on the front cover so readers can see which kind person shared a favourite read with them.

Year Two love to read

This week, Year Two celebrated World Book Day by coming into school dressed as their favourite book characters. What an imaginative group of children they are and they look amazing in their outfits. Can you work out the book title that goes with each outfit?

To celebrate their birthdays, children are encouraged to donate a book to school and their reward for this is to come into school in a favourite outfit.

Some very inspiring books to choose from can be found here: Great books for Year 2

We are also promoting books linked to our science curriculum in Year Two and a link to some titles that you might like to choose from can be found below. There are some smashing books on the list and a name plate will be added to the book, so that there is a record of who donated it. Thank you once again, everyone and don’t forget to keep reading!

If that choice is not enough, some wonderful books can also be found here: Year 2 WIshlist